DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.32044#0012
6
INTRODUCTION.
ground-work to which enamel has been applied with the moil attradlive
efFedt. Our examples, however, only iliow specimens applied to metallic
bases, as praitised so exteniively in all chriitian countries during the mid-
dle ages.
The metals employed as a ground for enamel, are gold, silver, and
copper, brass being of too fusible a nature. The colouring paile which
forms the base, coniiits of oxides of lead and tin, fused with iilex in cer-
tain quantities, the opaque qualities being given by the oxide of tin,
while various colours are produced by the addition of other metallic ox-
ides ; thus from copper green is obtained, red from gold or iron, and
blue from cobalt. This lait colour prevails to a remarkable degree in
the earlier enamels.
Enamels were produced by various processes totally diitindt from each
other. In the moit choice works the mode of proceeding was exceed-
ingly tedious. Each colour was separated by ssender lines of filigree
attached to the surface of the plate ; these were bent and faihioned so
as to produce the complete outline of every part of the design in the most
delicate metal threads ; the spaces between were next filled in with the
desired colours, and the plate was then exposed to a degree of heat suf-
ficient to fuse the enamel-paite without affedting the metal.
In all the known examples of this mode of operation, gold was em-
ployed.·* The celebrated jewel of King Alfred, found near Athelney
Abbey, Somersetihire, in 1693, and now deposited in the Aihmolean
Museum, Oxford, is a remarkably curious early specimen of this kind of
enamel, and the more interesting from the great probability of its being
of Engliih workmanihip. An instance of its having been pradtised to a
comparatively late period may be seen in the German Beaker represented
in plate VIII.
The costliness of this process led to the adoption of another by which
similar effedts were more easily accompliihed, with the exception of
bolder lines, or narrow bands, of copper being substituted for the spider-
like threads which could only be produced in a metal so dudtile as gold.
This mode was termed in France, Champ-levé, and consisted in tooling
out the field of the metal lo as to leave thin lines to take the place of the
filigree in keeping one colour distindt from another, and to define the
outline and leading features of the design. The metal plate in this pro-
cess, in almost every known instance, is of copper, and after the cavities
were excised on the face of the metal, so as to hold firmly the enamel,
they were filled and then fused as before described ; and after being
* Engraved in the “ Dresses and Decorations of the Middle Ages.”
INTRODUCTION.
ground-work to which enamel has been applied with the moil attradlive
efFedt. Our examples, however, only iliow specimens applied to metallic
bases, as praitised so exteniively in all chriitian countries during the mid-
dle ages.
The metals employed as a ground for enamel, are gold, silver, and
copper, brass being of too fusible a nature. The colouring paile which
forms the base, coniiits of oxides of lead and tin, fused with iilex in cer-
tain quantities, the opaque qualities being given by the oxide of tin,
while various colours are produced by the addition of other metallic ox-
ides ; thus from copper green is obtained, red from gold or iron, and
blue from cobalt. This lait colour prevails to a remarkable degree in
the earlier enamels.
Enamels were produced by various processes totally diitindt from each
other. In the moit choice works the mode of proceeding was exceed-
ingly tedious. Each colour was separated by ssender lines of filigree
attached to the surface of the plate ; these were bent and faihioned so
as to produce the complete outline of every part of the design in the most
delicate metal threads ; the spaces between were next filled in with the
desired colours, and the plate was then exposed to a degree of heat suf-
ficient to fuse the enamel-paite without affedting the metal.
In all the known examples of this mode of operation, gold was em-
ployed.·* The celebrated jewel of King Alfred, found near Athelney
Abbey, Somersetihire, in 1693, and now deposited in the Aihmolean
Museum, Oxford, is a remarkably curious early specimen of this kind of
enamel, and the more interesting from the great probability of its being
of Engliih workmanihip. An instance of its having been pradtised to a
comparatively late period may be seen in the German Beaker represented
in plate VIII.
The costliness of this process led to the adoption of another by which
similar effedts were more easily accompliihed, with the exception of
bolder lines, or narrow bands, of copper being substituted for the spider-
like threads which could only be produced in a metal so dudtile as gold.
This mode was termed in France, Champ-levé, and consisted in tooling
out the field of the metal lo as to leave thin lines to take the place of the
filigree in keeping one colour distindt from another, and to define the
outline and leading features of the design. The metal plate in this pro-
cess, in almost every known instance, is of copper, and after the cavities
were excised on the face of the metal, so as to hold firmly the enamel,
they were filled and then fused as before described ; and after being
* Engraved in the “ Dresses and Decorations of the Middle Ages.”